Anyway, Nujabes is cool hi-hop, and that's a cool song (this is probably filed under "shit I shouldn't admit at the ANUS forum," but I dig a bit of anime, got introduced to this guy's music through a few episodes of Samurai Champloo). Hip-hop has its occasional place even in the life of a elitist metalhead bastard, but I think a song like this (and perhaps the genre itself) is limited in its appeal. Melodies like this can seem transcendental and uplifting, and their repetition, especially in such an open and delicate sound, can intoxicate the mind into emotion, but I'd hesitate to call it great music. The first time you hear it, one thinks "Wow, I gotta hear that again," the second time "That's a nice song," and subsequent listens reveal less and less and lose their ability to uplift. At least in my opinion -- I often become infatuated with a song with a particularly delicate and inspiring melody, and after a week am left wondering why I liked the damn thing in the first place. There's just not quite enough depth, either lyrically or compositionally.

That said, the aesthetics are great, I'd probably smoke a bowl to this if I got high on a regular basis but otherwise it's just stuff that "sounds deep."

Anyway, Nujabes is cool hi-hop, and that's a cool song (this is probably filed under "shit I shouldn't admit at the ANUS forum," but I dig a bit of anime, got introduced to this guy's music through a few episodes of Samurai Champloo). Hip-hop has its occasional place even in the life of a elitist metalhead bastard, but I think a song like this (and perhaps the genre itself) is limited in its appeal. Melodies like this can seem transcendental and uplifting, and their repetition, especially in such an open and delicate sound, can intoxicate the mind into emotion, but I'd hesitate to call it great music. The first time you hear it, one thinks "Wow, I gotta hear that again," the second time "That's a nice song," and subsequent listens reveal less and less and lose their ability to uplift. At least in my opinion -- I often become infatuated with a song with a particularly delicate and inspiring melody, and after a week am left wondering why I liked the damn thing in the first place. There's just not quite enough depth, either lyrically or compositionally.

That said, the aesthetics are great, I'd probably smoke a bowl to this if I got high on a regular basis but otherwise it's just stuff that "sounds deep."

Man, you went right to the point. I do'nt really appreciate Nujabes as much as this particular song. I downloaded an album by him and It's great for hip hop beats, but none of them come close to the link I posted. Guess in rap instrumentals what matters is finding the right "god part of the song" (I took that from and old ANUS metal hall forum post!). Well, I agree with all you've said. Except I don't get tired so easily of this song,

The only thing I disagree: Songs like this are more easy to see why you like it. I like because it's an emotional piano sample repeated, and I like repetition. Now try explaining why you like burzum.

On another note, finding a good sound to repeat is good in hip hop, but so are good produced instrumentals "from scratch".

I'd say that there is nothing cattle like in analyzing the music I posted. It just happens I noticed that it sounds somewhat "deep", the repetition. But I agree that it's not a "real song".

Quote: The first time you hear it, one thinks "Wow, I gotta hear that again," the second time "That's a nice song," and subsequent listens reveal less and less and lose their ability to uplift.

That happened to me now. I listened to it a lot of times, and the depthness is gone. I have come to the same conclusion as you. The music is like a wallpaper or something. But wallpapers are not bad.

lol, I'm not quite sure what you mean by "it's not a real song," it's as real as anything else.

But yeah, there's nothing wrong with sonic wallpaper per se, but of people will mistake the really pretty sonic wallpaper as something more profound than it really is.As you said, hip-hop is really just about finding something "cool" and running with it, which is fine -- I don't think anyone is going to devolve into an intellectual zombie from slapping on a coat of sonic wallpaper once in a blue moon, but then again the effects of music that is neither metal nor classical on the brain are not well understood.... GET SCARED

The technique of using repetition to enchant a listener is fundamental to the approach of many foundational black metal and doom metal bands. It's no surprise that it can work with other instruments and other genres.

But why does repetition have this effect (someone asked)? I never really figured out why, but I know it can work on me. "Illa Tidandi" and "Moti Ragnarokum" are two of my favorites by Burzum, despite their simplicity, or maybe because of it:

When listening to music that uses an abnormally great amount of repetition, I follow along normally for the first 4 or 6 reps, and then it gets to a point where my ear's intuition thinks the section will be over, even after having heard that piece of music several times before. Then it continues and that's when the effect kicks in. It has something to do with this feeling of permanence or consistency.

Dunkelheit and Transilvanian Hunger are some of the first songs that made me "get" the use of repetition in this way.

I noticed a similar effect when hearing a live performance of Inno A Satana from one of Emperor's DVD's. At the climax of the song, there are four lines of lyric delivered with a scowl/scream and under it you can hear a prominent snare sound. Passing from the screamed lines to the clean-sung ones the underlying riff and snare continue blasting along, creating that same feeling of "permanence". That's the best I can do to describe it.